Last (x) movies you saw

Sanshiro Sugata Part II (Akira Kurosawa, 1945) - 3/5 - fairly redundant if you've already seen Pt.1, and the anti-American propaganda is awkwardly shoehorned in. Great fight scenes though and the evil brothers are awesome.

Possession (Andrzej Żuławski, 1981) - 4/5? - at last, a horror film that makes less sense than Inferno. Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani bark non-sequiturs at each other in pidgin English and everyone bleeds copiously. Pretty great!

Shell (Scott Graham, 2012) - 3/5 - strangely similar to Bela Tarr's "The Turin Horse", dunno if that's coincidence or not. Slips into melodrama a bit towards the end, promising debut from the lad Graham though.

Beyond The Hills (Cristian Mungiu, 2012) - 5/5 - I guess this could be viewed as a political film, a film about the failure of humans to connect in a meaningful way or a film about the absence of God (if you want to get all Bergman about it). Mungiu's strength is that he leaves the interpretation up to the viewer and refuses to pass judgement. I can't see how a better film will be released this year.

good description of the mungiu imo; i went for absence of god myself

Wahlbergs part of the Unholy Jerk Trio at the ♥ of this movie. He's a terrible boyfriend/husband/dad/whatever who messily destroys what looks like a happy home because he's read a self-help look and gone all awesomefest.

latest batch -- mostly lol 1980s/early 1990s:

beverly hills cop (martin brest, 1984): 4/5
beverly hills cop 2 (tony scott, 1987): 3/5
top secret! (jim abrahams/david zucker/jerry zucker): 3.5/5 -- this made it into ILX's top 100 comedy films?!?
naked gun: from the files of police squad! (david zucker, 1988): 4.5/5 -- still holds up
naked gun 2 1/2: the smell of fear (david zucker, 1991): 4.5/5 -- better than i remembered it
naked gun 33 1/3: the final insult (peter segal, 1994): 2.5/5 -- this one was worse than i remembered it
prince of darkness (john carpenter, 1987): 3.5/5 -- kinda neat Carpenter horror film that i slept on but apparently no-one else did

A Useful Life (Federico Veiroj, 2010) - one for cinema buffs, though you'd be hard pressed to say this is a 'tribute'. To its credit this does examine why that arthouse cinema culture failed beyond a magical disappearance of the audience -- the dryness with which the films are presented is dramatized. Quietly witty.

The Silence (Baran Bo Odar, Pat Collins, 2010) - compared to The Killing and European crime procedurals but I'd also put this alongside Zodiac (also shown on TV in the same eve on a diff channel) and Memories of Murder. Crimes unsolved, haunted cops, hurt of time's passage, blood drips upon an elegaic landscape but on this one it didn't get the balance right. The shots of the landscape felt like an intrusion and a detraction from focus. Besides, the crime's chief perpetrator lived in a housing estate - you were asked to sympathise with his loneliness w/out actually spending enough time in the company of his day-to-day (non-) existence. Did like how it unfolded with back-and-forth switch, had a proper seamless-ness to it.

Joint Security Area (Park Chan-wook)
i can see why tarantino liked this so much. i think you can kind of sense that he's still figuring things out, maybe could use some editing down..

Daughters of the Dust / Diary of An African Nun (Julie Dash)
so great. you really have to focus to understand most of the dialogue in 'daughters'! i liked that
why hasn't she made a ton more films, julie dash is a genius

To the Wonder (Malick)
i don't even know.

Fox and His Friends (Fassbinder, 1975): Fassbinder's blase attitude toward homosexuality is pretty refreshing. I liked Rainer's performance as Fox. (4/5)

Zeitgeist (Peter Joseph, 2007): This is the first truther documentary I've watched. Incredibly incoherent, pathetic, but sort of hilariously inept? A terrible and very long slideshow presentation. (-5/5)

The Bitter Buddha (2012) 3/5
Stop Making Sense (1984; repeat viewing) 5/5
Decasia: The State of Decay (2002) 3.5/5
Touki Bouki (1973) 3.5/5
Bridesmaids (2011; 2nd viewing) 3.5/5
Zigeunerweisen (1980) 3/5
Ministry of Fear (1944) 3.5/5
Wake in Fright (1971) 4/5
Leviathan (2012) 4/5

The Conformist (Bertolucci, 1970) 3.5/5 this had amazing vivid colours. watched it over two days which never seems to work.
Margaret (Lonergan, 2011) 4.5/5 awesome. great characters and acting. top class film.
The Spirit of the Beehive (Erice, 1973) 3.5/5 ok but i found it almost too slow. loved the first post-film chat tho: "in the movies its all fake. its all a trick." it had some really striking visuals
This Is Not A Film (Panahi, 2010) 3.5/5 fun, made me want to see more of his films, especially the one where the little girl stops acting. it was called 'the circle' i think.
Where Is The Friend's House (Kiarostami, 1987) 4.5/5 simple but great
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Alfredson, 2011) 3.5/5 saw this originally at the cinema. maybe its cos I'm dumb but the great reveal didn't really work for me.

Oz The Great and Powerful

enjoyed it for the most part, quite psychedelic in the odd place. Wonder if its the start of a series?
Might read acouple of the Baums not having previously done so.

mini-Billy Wilder film fest:

the seven year itch (1955): 3.5/5 -- lol Tom Ewell
love in the afternoon (1957): 4.5/5 -- a sleeper
one, two, three (1961) -- 4.5/5 -- yay Jimmy Cagney & nihilist/cynical view of early-1960s international politics.

"one, two, three" has a great torture scene

one, two, three is great all around.

Numbers Station: Xanax the movie. Even stupider than it looks. Felt like everyone on set just arbitrarily agreed to end the movie

Heathers: Hadnt seen it in years, was bummed to find it kinda boring? Winona's cute tho.

Clueless: 900,000 views later & it's still funny.

Pretty In Pink: Suspending my disbelief that Andrew McCarthy was a dreamboat was always a huge problem for me. Still is. Young Jon Cryer though! :) Also lol that James Spader has his shirt unbuttoned to the waist for the entire movie.

Heathers: Hadnt seen it in years, was bummed to find it kinda boring? Winona's cute tho.

yeah :/ it doesnt hold up as well as you'd want

the last time i saw it i was kinda stunned by how nightmarish it becomes in the second half. veronica and j.d. making jokes at the jocks' funeral after murdering them (winona's 'oh shit' expression when one of the family members notices her snickering is great), the unpopular girl trying to kill herself, the actually pretty scary fight they get into at the end -- all pretty harsh stuff.

Stop Making Sense (1984; repeat viewing) 5/5

This never, ever gets old; just reading the title means I'm now humming the synth line from the start of "Girlfriend is Better" in my head. Don't know how you watched this time, but will stan for the blu-ray with uncompressed audio every time, it sounds superb even on my humble system.

When you get to the millionth view of clueless you attain nirvana

Uh, viewing. For real though, every time I watch it I find new things to laugh at. Alicia's performance is note-perfect.

today's batch 'o films:

theater of blood (douglas hickox, 1973): 4.5/5 -- surprisingly (and lol wonderfully) grisly even for a Vincent Price film. did this make it onto ILX's Top 100 Horror Films list -- i hope so!
reality bites (ben stiller, 1994): 1.5/5 -- unbearable even in 1994 -- back then, i had enough to sense to jet after Ethan Hawke's wretched rendition of add it up but sat through it this time, so i'm getting dumber as i get older. st. elmo's fire w/t the poodle-rock goodness of John Parr.
night of the comet (thom eberhardt, 1984): 3/5 -- neat, but not as awesome a bad movie as i was hoping (or expecting after the first 20 minutes). i'd still rather watch this than the Fresh Prince version of i am legend or the walking dead, though.

Blast of Silence: 4/5
The Avengers (Joss Whedon/RDjr et al): 2.5/5
Day Night Day Night: 3.5/5

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (8.5/10)
The House I Live In (7.5/10) -- This and the previous one would make a perfect double-bill: it's all about race.
Consenting Adults (5.5/10)
Personal Velocity (6.5/10) -- A little clumsy, but I liked this; directed by Arthur Miller's daughter, who's actually in the mildly entertaining piece of junk above.
Nothing Can Hurt Me (9/10) -- Best music documentary I've seen since the Spector film.
Secret Window (6/10) -- Boy, Turturro can ham it up.

Tyrannosaur (2011) 7/10
Not an easy watch, very well acted though.

looking forward to Dodsworth tonight.

Beyond the Hills - just as incredible, less brutal than expected (although still pretty fucking brutal).

Don't have any nightmares, ledge :-)

metropolis (anime) (rintarō, 2001)
performance (roeg, 1970)
the aviator (scorsese, 2004)

The Babysitters (2007)

Room 237
Dodsworth
Salesman
Down By Law

All important and worthwhile films

Watched The French Connection last night, which at first surprised me by being so conventional (the curse of being an influential film, perhaps?) and then by being so ugly. Still a helluva police thriller, though. The entire subway sequence has to be one of the best action scenes ever filmed.

TV: Winter's Bone (Granik, 2010) - like how the violence is made to be erratically paced (you think its gonna be made gradual, then it turns up almost unexpected and there's still a good 30 mins left...)
The Fighter (Russell, 2010) - enjoyed the mother's performance quite a bit.
Silent Light (Reygadas, 2007) - sorta hilarious mix between Ordet and Witness.

Persepolis (Satrapi, 2007) 3/5
Through a Glass Darkly (Bergman, 1961) 4/5
Diary of a Country Priest (Bresson, 1951) 3.5/5

real ratings this time.

Revanche (2008, Spielmann) 5
Inglorious Bastards, the (1978, Castellari) 3
Graine et le mulet, la [a.k.a. The Secret of the Grain] (2007, Kechiche) 9
Dreamgirls (2006, Condon) 6
Cimarron (1931, Ruggles) 4
Skyfall (2012, Mendes) 8
Open Water (2003, Kentis) 4
Open Water 2 (2006, Horn) 2
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011, Ritchie) 4
Home on the Range (2004, Finn & Stanford) 3

For All Mankind (Al Reinert, 1989)
2010 (Peter Hyams, 1984)
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Louis Malle, 1958)
Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves, 1968)
The Man from Snowy River (George Miller [not that George Miller] 1982)

the aviator (scorsese, 2004)

― 君ちゃん (clouds), Friday, March 29, 2013 9:17 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

what'd u think

Graine et le mulet, la [a.k.a. The Secret of the Grain] (2007, Kechiche) 9

this was a (bitter)sweet little movie! glad i'm not the only one here who saw it.

Sightseers (Ben Wheatley, 2012) - A funny Brummie Badlands, and that rarest of beasts - a British road movie. 5/5

how far can you even go though

lol

In this case, Cumbria.

Watched Jack, the CBC biopic about Jack Layton. Turns out, he was a really great guy. Who knew?

gimme the loot was really good, like unexpectedly so.
good script, good acting, good direction, good choices throughout.

March viewing:

Django Unchained (Tarantino, 2012) B
Rust and Bone (Audiard, 2012) A-
The Shining (Kubrick, 1981) A
Keep the Lights On (Sachs, 2012) D
Killing Them Softly (Dominik, 2012) C
Headhunters (Tyldrum, 2011) B
The Master (Anderson, 2012) B+
Trance (Boyle, 2013) B- Works brilliantly when it's pulpy gangster hijinks. As soon as they start delving into the hypnosis mindgames then it stumbles badly. Entertaining though.
Babette's Feast (Axel, 1987)

Saw Trance last night, more or less agree with the B- grade. Concept was great but the characters, plot and mindgames were surprisingly one-dimensional. Even more traumatically, I've ended up agreeing with a Peter Bradshaw review because of it.

Collaborator -- martin donovan wrote and directed. Very theatrical, writerly, and sort of slight, but there are some very nice moments and i'll watch donovan read the phone book, so...

robert wise film-festival chez moi:

born to kill (1947): 4.5/5 -- creepy Lawrence Tierney and wormy Elisha Cook, Jr. = can't go wrong w/ this noir
the house on telegraph hill (1951): 3/5 -- too many unlikeable characters & too big story flaws for this one to anything more than mediocre
somebody up there likes me (1956): 3.5/5 -- sorry, i just don't buy Paul Newman as a 1940s Lower East Side greaser; pretty good fight scenes though
i want to live! (1958): 3.5/5 -- all about Susan Hayward, who does great job in portraying a fundamentally unlikable film; a bit too clinical & preachy, though
odds against tomorrow (1959): 3.5/5 -- Robert Ryan, Harry Belafonte & (young) Shelley Winters as good as can be expected; a bit too cold for me to get that enthusiastic about it, though
the haunting (1963): 5/5 -- perfect; i wish that i'd seen this before last year's Horror Poll, i would've definitely voted for it (and probably in the Top 10)
the andromeda strain (1971): 4.5/5 -- clinical treatment & slow development works well, esp. when one gets used to the film's rhythm
star trek: the movie (1979): 3.5/5 -- unexpectedly, a pretty good Easter movie (b/c of its metaphysical/religious overtones) & special effects are still impressive; still, a bit overambitious for what it is essentially a souped-up original series episode.

On a whim I started watching the Masterpiece Theater 'Wuthering Heights' with Tom Hardy

I lasted maybe half an hour - I couldn't take Hardy's Heathcliff seriously because all I could hear was bloody Bane whenever he opened his mouth :( Stupid Nolan

Spring Breakers. Amply covered in its corresponding thread.
A Canterbury Tale. Not my favorite Archers flick; it dawdles, and John Sweet got my nerves. But the smell of hay and beer-soaked pubs wafts off the screen, and he knows how to record yokels chatting without condescending to them.

Killing of a Chinese Bookie (Cassavetes, 1976) - Oh man. It could have been a taught, gripping if generic thriller if it was less concerned with sadness and Ben Gazzara's face, with its broken pride smile. Despite there being just too much of the awful Mr Sophistication stage act scenes, its an otherwise incredibly powerful film. Gazzara's speech at the end about only being happy when he's being what others want him to be, rather than himself, is crushing. 4.5/5

batch of john ford films tonight:

the hurricane (1937): 3.5/5 - before Baltimora was Tarzan Boy, Jon Hall was in this one.
the long voyage home (1940): 3.5/5 - lol John Wayne's "Swedish" accent
they were expendable (1945): 3/5 - they were also interminable
3 godfathers (1948): 3.5/5 -- john ford's version of three men and a baby, w/ religious symbolism as an added bonus
rio grande (1950): 3.5/5 -- not as good as fort apache or she wore a yellow ribbon, but it gets the job done.